Beth Bentley - gone 56 weeks now

OK, so what are the "next steps", now that Beth Bentley has been missing for 56 weeks? In the absence of a persistent outcry from immediate family, is it time for the People of Woodstock to stand up and say, "Enough is enough"? Or rather, "Enough is not enough!"

Police have never called this other than a missing-person case. As far as they are concerned, Bentley just got fed up with life in Woodstock and took off. They did slap "endangered" on a poster on the P.D.'s webpage, but they never explained what was meant by that word.

I didn't know Beth. I didn't know anyone connected to the case. I didn't know her drinking buddies or her traveling companions. I'd never heard any of the rumors. I had never heard of her husband or his law practice. I had only been in Gus's Roadhouse once, and that was a long time before Beth disappeared - back right after it was started as a family billiards place; when was that? Before 2000?

And now?

Now it's time to start dragging out all the dirt and the sordid details, in hopes that someone, new or old, will decide it is time to provide some fresh clues. The purpose is not to smear Beth by discussing publicly what her life was like before the disappeared, who her friends and acquaintances were, what she did - at work and after, and with whom she did it.

A lot of information was posted on Facebook pages, until "cleansings" were conducted - by those who had set up the pages and who monitored them. And by someone who got at Beth's own Facebook page by accusing her account directly.

At first, there were many photographs on Beth's own Facebook page; there were plenty of "party" pictures - mostly, birthday parties or celebrations, many of which seemed to be an Gus's Roadhouse in Woodstock (now known as Offsides). Then someone got into Beth's account and removed them. But the pictures, and the names of those in the pictures, were noted by many people.

How did that person get access to her Facebook page, which would have been password-protected? Did someone know her password? Did someone use Beth's own computer in her office to alter her Facebook account contents? Who would have had authority or permission to use Beth's office computer? Did she have a computer at home that she used for Facebook?

Did someone go to a computer that Beth had used and access her Facebook page before it had been inactive for a period of time after which Facebook would have required re-entry of the password to the account?

Was Beth's account merely hidden, or were comments deleted from Beth's own Facebook page? Who did that?

Many of the "Friends" who were listed on Beth's page have removed or hidden their own Facebook pages. Many of them have been conspicuously silent following her disappearance. Normally, wouldn't friends of a missing person be clamoring for "justice"? Not Beth's friends...  So maybe they weren't really friends...

Or, worse, maybe some of them know, or have a strong idea, about what happened to Beth. Have they stepped forward with information? Have they volunteered information to Beth's family and to the police? It doesn't seem so.

Over the next weeks possible motives for her "disappearance" will be explored. Relationships will be explored. Information will be collected. The "dots" will be connected.

Presumably, the police have already done some (all?) of this. However, they are withholding, at least temporarily, every single word about what they have done, citing "ongoing investigation" as their reason for denying the release of information under a FOIA request. Since it's a missing person case, and not a criminal investigation, I'd be curious to know what the "ongoing investigation" is.

The police have never named even one person-of-interest in this case, but that might require them to acknowledge that this involves a crime and not "just" a missing person case. Has it occurred to the police yet that when a woman vanishes without a trace, with no advance plans and no means of support, and with no credit card or cell phone use or known transportation, that there might just be a crime involved?

What do you think ought to be the earliest rumors, tips, facts to pursue?